Chapter 5 : Sparring

"The different countries are separated by borders...."

"I'm exhausted."

Miyagawa crouched down on his desk while staring at the teacher who was giving a geography lesson and sighed, his eyes surrounded by dark circles that made his look like a panda.

It had already been four weeks since Miyagawa began her shinobi training, at this point you could tell the excitement of the first day slowly turned into routine and then boredom.

"Lazy."

He turned his head and looked at his tablemate who had just made an inappropriate comment with a scornful look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm lazy, so what?"

Makino didn't answer him though and just ignored him, Miyagawa already used to the strange little girl shook his head and continued to follow the coir which lasted another hour before the teacher clapped his hands waking up all the already drowsy students from their boredom.

"Well today we are going to do our first physical training please follow me to the training ground."

"Great, we're finally going to stretch our legs!"

"Subaro I'll show you my flying feet of hell."

"You read too many novels Doi."

"Yesterday I went with the parents..."

All the class including Miyagawa followed the teacher to the training ground, the children chatting with each other laughing and smiling except for Miyagawa who didn't want to mix with brats and Makino with his unsocial personality.

A few minutes later they arrived at the training ground, so Arashi stopped in front of the students, holding a notepad with his usual stern expression and explained the rules.

"I want to remind you kids that this is not a fight as such but a traditional shinobi sparring, it is a method of combat training that has been passed down for generations in the village, so avoid getting hurt and don't hold any grudges after the sparring...."

"Well let's start training, Kitani Nanao and Ikari kakuei."

Two little girls came shyly into the circle on the field before Asashi's eyes.

"Make the seal of confrontation."

The two made a seal with their fingers and joined them together then stepped back before starting to fight.

The slightly excited children cheered their friends loudly while Miyagawa watched the fight with a slight interest that disappeared soon after.

The movements of the two were clumsy and they often made errors in judgement, this was quite normal as they had only been learning taijutsu for about a month, the fighting was however quite entertaining but watching children fight was not really a sight that would interest an adult soul.

Finally the two tired quickly, the teacher stopped the fight and asked them to make the sign of reconciliation.

Time passed slowly and the children fought one by one before it was finally Miyagawa's turn.

Miyagawa standing in the circle and seeing the opponent facing him couldn't help but complain slightly about his luck.

"Poor Miyagawa."

"Is she strong?"

"She's from the Hyūga clan, people from big clans are very powerful that's what my mother says."

"No way Miaygawa will lose to a girl!"

"What do you mean, fat kid?"

"That girls are weaker than gracons is all."

"What do you know, Makino beats him!"

"Miyagawa you better not lose, defend the boys' honor!"

Miyagawa watched the boys in his class cheer him on and the girls cheer Makino on and could only smile at the spiritedness of these children.

"Miyagawa, Makino made the seal of Confrontation."

Miyagawa stepped forward and linked his fingers with those of the little girl, then both stepped back and the fight began.

Miyagawa barely had time to think about what to do when he saw Makino rush towards him at full speed and hit him in the chest with his right palm.

Miyagawa tried to defend himself but was quickly pushed back by the force of the strike causing him to cough and before he could react a second palm hit him in the stomach then a third in the chest and finally a last one in the chin throwing him backwards and making him fall to the ground.

"Is it a child or a tank?"

Miyagawa who got up from the ground thought as he coughed with his body covered in dust.

"Well done Makino, kick his ass!"

"Miyagawa you're an embarrassment to us don't let a girl beat you!"

"Makino we're with you!"

He looked at Makino who assumed a martial artist's posture as he stood still and stared at him with a cold stare while sighing.

"The children of the world are truly abnormal."

Arashi, seeing this scene, slowly shook his head and felt slightly sorry for Miyagawa.

"I'll have to comfort him, we mustn't hurt the self-esteem of children of this age."

He had been slightly afraid to send any of the other children against Makino because she had a higher level than any of the students present due to the training the clan children undergo from a young age.

Showing students their different levels may be good, as it may encourage a competitive spirit, but if there is too great a gap between levels and if they realise their weaknesses at the beginning of their learning period, this may have negative effects on their future academic careers.

Too many times he had seen promising children become lazy because of this.

He had chosen as Makino's opponent the student who seemed to be the most mature of this class and with the greatest potential, he had managed to extract his chakra in only one day, showing his talent but unfortunately despite all the child's potential he couldn't beat a child of the clans in only one month of learning.

At least that's what he thought before the next scene left him stunned.